Amitav Ghosh's Blog, page 5

Gandhi urged to make common cause with China on opium

  My old friend, Ramachandra Guha, was kind enough to send me a copy of a letter that he found in Correspondence File No. 19 of the Gandhi Papers in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. It is from a correspondent in Los Angeles, urging the Mahatma to make common cause with China on a […]

Sleepwalking towards Disaster

  Over the last couple of decades, largely because of changes in technologies of communication, the political sphere has become larger and more intrusive than ever before. The digital media have made it almost impossible to escape the sound of haranguing voices; not a day seems to pass but we are asked to post or […]

Fractal buckwheat

  As I’ve written elsewhere, what daffodils were to V.S. Naipaul, frangipanis were to me: As a child, while reading ‘The Mutiny on the Bounty’ I’d been fascinated by the word ‘frangipani’ which seemed to me to be redolent of all that was mysterious, desirable and secret. Then one day I discovered that the gnarled […]

The Psychological Effects of Partition: a letter from a reader

  26 Oct 2014 Dear Amitav Ghosh, Sir,I am writing fan mail – for the first time as a a woman just turned fifty. The Hungry Tide is probably one of the most incredible novels I have read and re-read, as well as recommending it to many friends. I congratulate you on such a magnificent […]

Kolkata’s Once and Future Chinatown

      Breakfast at the Sunday morning market in Chinatown is an old tradition in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).   Visitors have to be up early because the market’s hours are short – from about 6.30 to 8.30 a.m..                     The market is in a lane […]

Prasenjit Duara’s ‘Crisis of Global Modernity’

        Prasenjit Duara’s The Crisis of Global Modernity: Asian Traditions and a Sustainable Future (Cambridge University Press, 2015)   is a wide-ranging overview of Asian environmental history and philosophy. A singularly timely publication, it is a hugely important intervention in the global discussion of climate change.             […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 12

            By this time the DC had become a good friend and we enjoyed working together; I gauged the needs and he did his best to meet them. Two or three days after the bombing, as I was going round the City Camp one morning on my usual rounds, I […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 11

        Imphal, 1942 Roberts ran a Spartan household with just a bedroom and living/dining room in full commission apart from the Office complex. He had a Camp bed set up for me and I woke up at six feeling fresh and ready for the fray and the thought of another attack remained […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 10

    I moved out into the Camp to assess the casualties and damage in order to organise the urgently required clearing up and rehabilitation of the severely depleted infra-structure so as to be able to cope with the fresh arrivals expected later in the day.         The immediate need, of course, […]

Exodus from Burma, 1941-42; a Memoir by Captain Nadir S. Tyabji: Part 9

            I cannot remember the date of my marching out of Tamu, it was like any other.                       My departure having been delayed considerably because of the dogs, I managed to crawl into Palel around midnight and slept the sleep […]